Fiber Optic Installations | Carlo Bernardini

Carlo Bernardini was born in Viterbo in 1966. He started out his career in the early 90s with an abstract painting that concentrated on the dialectical relationship between line and monochrome, diversified moments of representative conception of space-light. Bernardini uses the fiber optic since 1996, to transform dark spaces into abstract light environments. His site-specific installations are based on triangular forms, which lines passes through walls, floors, façades and they may be seen floating between buildings. Each installation has its own precise viewpoint, from which it can be seen as a two-dimensional rhomboidal form. Bernardini also works combining steel and optic fibers, to built permanent public sculptures in stainless.

Courtesy of Carlo Bernadini

“Paper is simply paper as long as it is white, but once you draw on it, it becomes ‘a drawing’. A design in light is a mental drawing that uses dark space. Fibre optic drawings are in harmony with the place itself, the light creating an interrelation by overcoming the physical walls and transforming the environment in a deceptive way, pushing it to the limits of an illusionary dimension. An imaginary drawing, executed with the light of optical fibre, can go beyond the walls, where the wholeness can only be reconstructed as a puzzle in the viewer’s mind. The installation takes over the space and incorporates it. Spatial forms develop a challenging relationship within the space as the optical fibre line passes from room to room piercing the walls and the floors, combining the external environment with the internal one: ‘Permeable space’, the place where light generates space.” – Carlo Bernardini

Courtesy of Carlo Bernadini

Soon afterwards, he started experimenting with adding a third dimension to his creations, creating spaces that are perceived differently by visitors, depending on where they are located throughout the installation, all done with the use of fiber optics, electro-luminescent surfaces and optical lighting film.

Although the istallations are constructed around the idea of light-dark, the darkness is never total and then the viewer is aware of what’s around. The surprise factor is given by the fact that, if you walk around the objects, you will discover it is in fact a pure geometrical form, that only reveals itself from certain spots. Bernadini’s projects have been exhibited not only in i galleries or museums, but also in courtyards, facades and other outdoor spaces. The following pictures are some of the latest Bernardini’s installations since 2009.